(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel, a manufacturing method thereof, and a mask therefor.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used flat panel displays. An LCD includes two panels provided with field-generating electrodes and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which determines orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust polarization of incident light.
Among LCDs including field-generating electrodes on respective panels, a kind of LCDs provides a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged in a matrix at one panel and a common electrode covering an entire surface of the other panel. The image display of the LCD is accomplished by applying individual voltages to the respective pixel electrodes. For the application of the individual voltages, a plurality of three-terminal thin film transistors (TFTs) are connected to the respective pixel electrodes, and a plurality of gate lines transmitting signals for controlling the TFTs and a plurality of data lines transmitting voltages to be applied to the pixel electrodes are provided on the panel.
The panel for an LCD has a layered structure including several conductive layers and several insulating layers. The gate lines, the data lines, and the pixel electrodes are made from different conductive layers (referred to as “gate conductor,” “data conductor,” and “pixel conductor” hereinafter) preferably deposited in sequence and separated by insulating layers. A TFT includes three electrodes: a gate electrode made from the gate conductor and source and drain electrodes made from the data conductor. The source electrode and the drain electrode are connected by a semiconductor usually located thereunder, and the drain electrode is connected to the pixel electrode through a hole in an insulating layer.
The gate conductor and the data conductor are preferably made of Al containing metal such as Al and Al alloy having low resistivity for reducing the signal delay in the gate lines and the data lines. The pixel electrodes are usually made of transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide (ITO) and indium zinc oxide (IZO) for both the field generation upon voltage application and the light transmission.
In the meantime, the contact between Al containing metal and ITO or IZO causes several problems such as corrosion of the Al containing metal and the large contact resistance.
As described above, a drain electrode and a pixel electrode are connected through a contact hole in an insulator. This connection is obtained by forming the hole in the insulator to expose a portion of an upper Al-containing metal layer of the drain electrode, removing the exposed portions of the upper metal layer by blanket-etching to expose a lower layer having good contact characteristic, and finally, forming the pixel electrode thereon. However, the blanket etch frequently generates undercut formed by over-etching the Al containing metal under a sidewall of the contact hole. The undercut yields disconnection or poor profile of the subsequently-formed pixel electrode near the undercut to increase the contact resistance between the pixel electrode and the drain electrode.